The Loudness War:
Background, Speculation and Recommendations

This page is for additional material relating to "The Loudness War: Background, Speculation and Recommendations" by Earl Vickers, presented at the 129th Audio Engineering Society Convention, November 4, 2010. This paper discusses the audible effects of hypercompression and looks at the loudness war in terms of game theory. After presenting evidence questioning the idea that louder recordings sell better, it suggests some possible ways to de-escalate the loudness war.

With the remastered version, notice the crunch due to clipping distortion of the bass in the chorus, especially during the word "fall." (This happens on the CD as well.) Also compare the background vocals.

At the 2011 New York AES Convention, Susan Rogers gave a presentation that referenced, and occasionally questioned, my AES convention paper. (Some of the most important highlights are in this audio sample.) Her presentation was thought-provoking, and while I disagree with some of her conclusions, I'm rethinking the section about compression and hearing loss. My paper made the assumption, as embodied in the ISO1999 standard, that hearing damage is proportional to the cumulative energy exposure; this would imply that compressed music is likely to be more damaging, since it spends more time at higher levels. However, Rogers quotes Fleischer:

Hearing damage is much more likely to be caused by short impulse noise than by ongoing continuous noise, due to the ear's protective mechanisms

Sound sources very close to the ear are likely to be far more damaging (e.g., a single shot from a blank pistol at close range can ruin your hearing for life)

People who rely heavily on their hearing are more likely to have good hearing (though it's not necessarily clear which is cause and which is effect)

So, to the extent that dynamic range compression reduces the relative level of impulsive peaks such as drum hits, it may arguably serve a protective function. However, I think the jury is still out on this, and particularly on the issue of tinnitus.

Regardless of the effect of compression, evidence strongly suggests that extended headphone and ear bud listening at high levels is harmful, probably because the sound sources are played directly into the ear. A couple of my presentation slides on this are derived from: